Backify Gives 512GB of Unencrypted Online Backup Storage for Free

[x0pa]

A new service called Backify is offering an insane 512GB of online storage for free just for signing up for their service. It's the definition of freemium, with two additional tiers of unlimited backup and unlimited backup + "briefcase", which is space you can use for anything, coming in at $3 and $5 a month, respectively.

This amount of space for free sounds amazing, especially since they let you download software onto your computer to automatically take care of backups for you, thereby minimizing the amount of ads you would have to look at (for them to recoup bandwidth and storage costs). That is, if that's even how they monetize the service. But there are some red flags.

One, the enormous amount of storage given is a red flag in itself.

Two, your password that you set is sent to you in plain text. We called the service and they said the passwords only come in plain text in the email right now, and are stored MD5 hashed. They are going to fix the plain-text email thing later today.

Three, although we were able to get through to the company, from what we heard it sounds more like a start-up, low-scale operation than a properly established business. That may or may not be true—this is just the impression we got from calling them.

In any rate, from a quick search, there isn't a lot of mention of Backify before today; so little so that Google automatically assumes I mean Backupify, which got $5 million in Series B funding earlier this year.

512GB is a lot to turn down, so what I would recommend is to sign up with an email address you don't much care about, with a password that isn't used anywhere else, in case there's any risk of security breach down the line.

Backify | via Tom's Hardware

does anyone here use offsite backup solutions like this ?

[asiaboy]

They are kind of strange for a backup service. They do not allow adult content, among many other types of content. Why would a backup service care about that? Do they actually look at what you backup? I would not touch them with a bargepole.

[x0pa]

thats odd, never read about that, will try them out i guess and sees how it works

[Mansized]

Thanks for turning me onto this..and yeah..didn't notice tos about adult images. I also guess time will tell!

[raymor]

The fact that they could in any way know what's stored (adult or not) means the "encryption" is nothing more than a marketing gimmick. Useful encryption would mean that what's actually sent to their server is unreadable.

In addition, if they plan to start using md5 hashes now, that indicates a lack of knowledge about security because MD5 was cracked several months ago and should no longer be used for new applications. The should be using one of the SHA family of hashes, salted, via crypt().


Those are my two observations as a career security person with knowledge of off site backup gained from spending four years developing Clonebox and consulting on Orion offsite backup.

[HunkyLuke]

Ummm...the title says unencrypted, which in itself is a dead giveaway that they are planning on using your data for other purposes. If you do use this service, then make sure you encrypt before uploading, that way they won't be able to see what it is that is uploaded.

But honestly, I am weary of any free service like this as we all know that free services disappear or end up doing something scammy to make money.

[raymor]

Oops I glanced at the title and saw "encrypted" when it says "unencrypted

[Poppy]

I do not use Carbonite, but it looks pretty solid. This is a paid service.

[jIgG]

i use an offsite backup service

THe ones I've seen and used at default settings encrypt and upload content using the company's encryption key, but you can set your own encryption key which would render your files unreadable to anyone without it.

Carbonite i've tried and found to be really slow.

Also one thing to keep in mind, is that most of these services do not allow you to back up external drives, and if they do if the device hasn't been connected for 30 days the files would expire and be erased

[x0pa]

good to know, i have to watch my bandwidth im only allowed 500/750gb and believe me i push that limit can't wait for 250mbit line or gigabit line with unlimited data :canadaf:

[x0pa]

Dear Dade Williams,

First of all, we would like to thank you for using Backify. We hope you really liked our service and enjoyed using it.

We regret to inform you that we can not provide free backup services anymore. All free Backify accounts will be closed on November 22, 2011.

fuckers ;(

[x0pa]

Dear Dade Williams

We are writing to you regarding BACKIFY.COM who you recently created an online backup account with.

BACKIFY.COM was a reseller of Livedrive (http://www.livedrive.com). Livedrive provided the technology and service behind the product offered to you by BACKIFY.COM.

We are writing to inform you that BACKIFY.COM is no longer a Livedrive reseller and the services that they purchased from our company on your behalf have been terminated. If you are using a service provided by BACKIFY.COM and powered by Livedrive then this service will now have stopped working.

We would also like to advise you that we have received a number of complaints about BACKIFY.COM from their customers and from industry organizations. We would like to advise you not to provide any credit card information to BACKIFY.COM. If you have provided credit card information to BACKIFY.COM then we would suggest contacting your card provider and informing them that your card may be used fraudulently. If BACKIFY.COM have charged your card for services not provided you should contact your card provider and ask them to initiate a chargeback procedure.

Please note that this advisory is being sent to you in good faith because we feel you should be informed that BACKIFY.COM is no longer a Livedrive reseller and of the complaints we have become aware of. No contract exists between yourself and Livedrive and we are not able to assist further in any dispute you may have with BACKIFY.COM.

If you have installed the online backup software provided by BACKIFY.COM we highly recommend you uninstall it from your computer by following the steps below:

On Windows:
Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel and select Add/Remove Programs (or ‘Programs and settings’), select Livedrive and select uninstall.

On Mac:
Go to Finder > Applications and delete the Livedrive application.

Please note that any data you backed up using BACKIFY.COM cannot be retrieved and we recommend you establish an alternative backup service immediately.

Livedrive does provide a very similar online backup service to the one provided by BACKIFY.COM and you can read more details and, if you wish, signup for a trial on our website at http://www.livedrive.com. Please note however that we do not provide a free service as BACKIFY.COM did.

Other online backup vendors you may wish to consider include:
Carbonite.com
iDrive.com
Mozy.com

We are sorry for the inconvenience this situation may have caused you.

Kind Regards

Livedrive Limited

now i need to think of where to go though i liked free

[raymor]

now i need to think of where to go though i liked free

The one I linked to
is still free. They don't allow 512 GB under tbe completely free plan, but for reasonable amounts of data
it's completely free. For larger amounts, you can choose to pay nothing for backup and instead pay for restore if and when you need it.

[Bec]

Carbonite i've tried and found to be really slow.

Yeah -- I looked into it too and figured out with the daily upload limits it would take me about a year to get 80 gigs up there!

[x0pa]

Dear Dade Williams,

We are writing to you in regards to the recent action taken by LiveDrive to close your backup/briefcase account.

Backify used to be a reseller for LiveDrive.com's services. Recently we were having some issues with their serive and they were literally unable to provide a solution to our problems. More information about these issues can be read on our homepage at www.backify.com. Tired of the service provided by LiveDrive, we asked them to close our reseller account. It may be noted that at no point did we ask them to close the accounts of our customers. But they went ahead and shut down the accounts of every Backify customer.

For every customer's account, we have paid in advance a full year's fee. So, the step taken by LiveDrive to close our customers' accounts without refunding us is totally illegal, and we are considering our legal options at this time. Since your account was already paid fully for one year in advance, we request you to get in touch with LiveDrive and ask them to restore your service. Their customer support email address is support@livedrivesupport.com

Additionally, we understand that you may have spent considerable time/effort/bandwidth to upload your files to LiveDrive's servers and by deleting your files/data without any notice they may have violated several laws. We also advice you to get legal help in case you suffered losses due to this sudden termination of service by LiveDrive.


Thanks,
Backify Team

interesting.....